FCS: at the crossroad, again

Agricultural credit

Fabrication of high-purity polycrystalline mgo

Chemical production and analysis of magnesium oxide - high purity polycrystalline fabricatio

Operational Entanglement Families of Symmetric Mixed N-Qubit States

We introduce an operational entanglement classification of symmetric mixed states for an arbitrary number of qubits based on stochastic local operations assisted with classical communication (SLOCC operations). We define families of SLOCC entanglement classes successively embedded into each other, we prove that they are of non-zero measure, and we construct witness operators to distinguish them. Moreover, we discuss how arbitrary symmetric mixed states can be realized in the lab via a one-to-one correspondence between well-defined sets of controllable parameters and the corresponding entanglement families.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, published version, Phys. Rev. A, in pres

The mechanical behavior of tantalum carbide and magnesium oxide

Mechanical behavior of tantalum carbide and magnesium oxide polycrystalline ceramic

Information Flow of quantum states interacting with closed timelike curves

Recently, the quantum information processing power of closed timelike curves have been discussed. Because the most widely accepted model for quantum closed timelike curve interactions contains ambiguities, different authors have been able to reach radically different conclusions as to the power of such interactions. By tracing the information flow through such systems we are able to derive equivalent circuits with unique solutions, thus allowing an objective decision between the alternatives to be made. We conclude that closed timelike curves, if they exist and are well described by these simple models, would be a powerful resource for quantum information processing.Comment: Now includes appendix proving Deutsch's maximum entropy conjectur

Fast partial decoherence of a superconducting flux qubit in a spin bath

The superconducting flux qubit has two quantum states with opposite magnetic flux. Environment of nuclear spins can find out the direction of the magnetic flux after a decoherence time $\tau_0$ inversely proportional to the magnitude of the flux and the square root of the number of spins. When the Hamiltonian of the qubit drives fast coherent Rabi oscillations between the states with opposite flux, then flux direction is flipped at a constant rate $\omega$ and the decoherence time $\tau=\omega\tau_0^2$ is much longer than $\tau_0$. However, on closer inspection decoherence actually takes place on two timescales. The long time $\tau$ is a time of full decoherence but a part of quantum coherence is lost already after the short time $\tau_0$. This fast partial decoherence biases coherent flux oscillations towards the initial flux direction and it can affect performance of the superconducting devices as qubits.Comment: 7 page

Upper limits on the luminosity of the progenitor of type Ia supernova SN2014J

We analysed archival data of Chandra pre-explosion observations of the position of SN2014J in M82. No X-ray source at this position was detected in the data, and we calculated upper limits on the luminosities of the progenitor. These upper limits allow us to firmly rule out an unobscured supersoft X-ray source progenitor with a photospheric radius comparable to the radius of white dwarf near the Chandrasekhar mass (~1.38 M_sun) and mass accretion rate in the interval where stable nuclear burning can occur. However, due to a relatively large hydrogen column density implied by optical observations of the supernova, we cannot exclude a supersoft source with lower temperatures, kT < 80 eV. We find that the supernova is located in the centre of a large structure of soft diffuse emission, about 200 pc across. The mass, ~3x10^4 M_sun and short cooling time of the gas, tau_cool ~ 8 Myrs, suggest that it is a supernova-inflated super-bubble, associated with the region of recent star formation. If SN2014J is indeed located inside the bubble, it likely belongs to the prompt population of type Ia supernovae, with a delay time as short as ~ 50 Myrs. Finally, we analysed the one existing post-supernova Chandra observation and placed upper limit of ~ (1-2) 10^37 erg/s on the X-ray luminosity of the supernova itself.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Measures of entanglement in multipartite bound entangled states

Bound entangled states are states that are entangled but from which no entanglement can be distilled if all parties are allowed only local operations and classical communication. However, in creating these states one needs nonzero entanglement resources to start with. Here, the entanglement of two distinct multipartite bound entangled states is determined analytically in terms of a geometric measure of entanglement and a related quantity. The results are compared with those for the negativity and the relative entropy of entanglement.Comment: 5 pages, no figure; title change

Mixed State Entanglement of Assistance and the Generalized Concurrence

We consider the maximum bipartite entanglement that can be distilled from a single copy of a multipartite mixed entangled state, where we focus mostly on $d\times d\times n$-dimensional tripartite mixed states. We show that this {\em assisted entanglement}, when measured in terms of the generalized concurrence (named G-concurrence) is (tightly) bounded by an entanglement monotone, which we call the G-concurrence of assistance. The G-concurrence is one of the possible generalizations of the concurrence to higher dimensions, and for pure bipartite states it measures the {\em geometric mean} of the Schmidt numbers. For a large (non-trivial) class of $d\times d$-dimensional mixed states, we are able to generalize Wootters formula for the concurrence into lower and upper bounds on the G-concurrence. Moreover, we have found an explicit formula for the G-concurrence of assistance that generalizes the expression for the concurrence of assistance for a large class of $d\times d\times n$ dimensional tripartite pure states.Comment: 7 page